What side of the Gluten Free Debate are you on? I'm not sure - yet - but I think I'm heading toward conversion from being a gluten glutton to going gloriously gluten gnome-ore. (okay, that last effort to stick with the "g" thing I had going was a stretch) In January of this year, needing to lose over 100 lbs, I started to eat in a more "Paleo" way. Paleo is gluten free. Along with excercise, I began to lose some weight and surprisingly quickly, feel better. Within a couple of months I had lost 28 lbs. I've continued to hit the gym 5 days a week - but I have somewhat fallen off of my dilligence on Paleo - and therefore, my gluten-free diet. Well, I have noticed a tremendous difference -- as my weight loss has slowed - and I'm back to not feeling as well. The only thing I can attribute this to is -- getting older -- and what I'm eating/not eating.

Now, there's a whole lot of information out there and even more people who tout themselves as expert on the subject. All I know is - I started to feel great and lose weight almost effortlessly. I say almost because part of the deal was giving up beer and, well, that's not fair. But if the trade off is living longer and being healthier -- I think I'm going to jump back on the train.

There's an interesting article I just read from the Huffington Post. A couple of paragraphs I thought simplified and summed up pretty well the whole "gluten free" issue:

---- In general, there are two groups of people who are recommended to avoid gluten: people with celiac disease, who have an immune-system reaction to gluten,and people who are gluten-sensitive, who feel better after they cut gluten out of their diets, said Cynthia Wu, a clinical dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Gluten is a protein found in many grains, including wheat, barley and rye.

People who don't fall into either of these groups would probably not be advised to cut gluten out of their diet in pregnancy, because it is a very difficult diet to follow, Wu said. Gluten-free diets are not known to be risky in pregnancy, as long as women replace gluten-containing foods with healthy substitutes, such as rice-based products and sweet potatoes, Wu said.---